


People Change

by Skyedestiny



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Gen, Post-Project Freelancer, mentions of Red and Blue team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-07
Updated: 2017-03-07
Packaged: 2018-09-30 06:15:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10155923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyedestiny/pseuds/Skyedestiny
Summary: It's been some time since they've last seen each other.  They're both similar to how they each remember the other, and yet, different as can be.  They used to be a functioning machine back in the Project.  Time tests all bonds.





	

**Author's Note:**

> [Originally posted on May 21, 2014.]
> 
> This came about through an anonymous request on tumblr. At the mention of having some Wash and Carolina interaction, I instantly thought of this. This takes place somewhere during the present-day arc in season 10.

They’ve both changed so much by the next time they encounter each other.

Carolina appears as if from nowhere and Wash has no idea how she found them - the Reds and the Blues and him. He tries to ask but never gets a straight answer. He seems to give up on finding out pretty quickly, apparently deeming that what isn’t being said isn’t being said for a reason.

Let’s be clear. This is not to say that he trusts Carolina. He does, but it’s not in the way that he used to. He trusts her because she is someone he knows, a fellow blast victim in a way. But he doesn’t have the same blind faith that he once did.

In the same way, his lack of persistence is strange. The old Washington from Freelancer would prod people with questions, always curious. And if he received no answer, he would change his wording, go about asking in another way. He was not one to give up.

Not anymore, it seems. Now he watches her with cautious and skeptical eyes.

She can feel them through his helmet.

This makes her upset. She’s upset a lot of the time recently. This has become a bit of a constant for her, even if she doesn’t realize it.

On one day, Carolina speaks to Wash in lieu of speaking to the others.

“How’s the progress coming on the Epsilon unit?” she asks.

“No luck so far,” he admits, voice a tired sigh. He knows she’s glaring. He knows she’s just about to start in - to once again badmouth the people he’s come to know as friends. …At least as allies. He cuts her off at the pass. "Look, Sarge is working as hard as he can-“

"Then _tell him_ -” Her voice is sharp. ”-to work _harder_.”

"He’s trying!” Wash counters. "This thing is just too complex, Carolina, they’ve never seen anything _like_ this!”

“Do I _sound like_ I _care_?”

"Do _I_ sound like we’re planning to stop working?”

"You _sound_ like you’re talking back to me, and making excuses for an incompetent work team not fulfilling the duties I _assigned to them_ , Agent Washington.” She takes strong steps, filled with threat, closer to him. ”Are you?”

She’s so much angrier than he remembers her being. Carolina used to joke, used to smile, used to be filled with confidence. This is not _new_ , par se - she became this way back in Freelancer. Still, it is strange for Wash. She is unlike herself.

He sounds almost disappointed - like a teenager answering his parent who won’t let him get a word in edgewise. ”No, sir.”

Washington would have been sheepish in the past. Not now. There is silence as they stand, both observing their differences. ”Good.”

Carolina turns her back on him.

"I expect progress to be made quicker from now on, and for results to be achieved soon,” she says. "Tell _Sarge_ -” She spits the name. ”-to test his limitations and move faster. Or else.”

“Yes, sir.”

He does not pass on this message. At least not in these words.

How odd some years time makes, as they are both familiar to each other, and yet they are strangers. Agent Carolina and Agent Washington know each other. Carolina and Wash do not. To pretend that they do is foolish.

And yet, they do. They do until they can no longer deny that they are _not_ friends. They are _not_ teammates. 

That moment comes when a gun is pointed at Tucker’s head and a choice must be made. And a choice is.


End file.
